POST MATCH YORK

Defeat at Bootham Crescent yesterday afternoon turned out to be Mark McGhee’s last game in charge of Bristol Rovers.

Shortly after attending his post match press conference he was given the news that he was to be relieved of his duties.

This is what he had said when he faced the press.

“I think our defending in the first half was catastrophic and York seemed to get an awful lot of opportunities to get down our left hand side and we weren’t able to get across the park quick enough to defend on that side.

“Ultimately as much as the shape, in the early part of the game did give a us a few problems, it came down to individual situations, defending and stopping the crosses.

‘Those sort of things kill you and just gave us far too much to do. We can talk all you like about the chances we had. Even before they scored the opening goal we had a chance to take the lead through Fabian Broghammer and we were much, much, better in the second half.

‘That wasn’t about York dropping off it was us playing the way we asked them to from the start of the game.”

In all honesty, all four York goals were preventable and Mark explained how he saw the first two.

“Some of the goals we conceded were poor ones. I certainly think that Danny Woodards, perhaps with some help, might have done better to stop the cross that led to Garry Kenneth conceding the own goal for their first one.

“The second one might also have been prevented and for Matt Lund to get beaten like that after his impressive displays at right back was disappointing.

“What I would say, though, is that both Danny and Matt came off injured at half time and they are both struggling and we have to give them the benefit of the doubt because of that.”

His half time team talk at least produced a better second half showing, but by then the damage had been done.

“At half time, you can imagine that I had a lot to say because I gave them a plan of how to play and we had worked all week on certain aspects of how to implement the plan and they didn’t seem able or willing to do it.

“As a result we were on the back foot, the centre halves couldn’t come and head the ball, we seemed to be outnumbered and York’s movement was too much for us.

“Everything that could be wrong about our performance was wrong and I had plenty say at the break. Normally I try to give the players as much as I can, but today I had to question certain aspects of our play from the beginning because our play, in the second half, was much better.

On Thursday the Mark had said that he was embarrassed by the club’s current situation, and after this defeat he said: “tonight I feel humiliated with our first half performance. While I always question myself after a defeat I also have to question the team work which, ultimately, comes back to me. When the players cross that white line, they have to be prepared to give us more than they did today.”

“I have to take full responsibility for the position we are in but I would hope that people will factor in circumstances such as the injuries we have experienced this season. However the players who do go out there will need to do better than they did in the first half.”